Teacher expectations and educational equity in teacher education

Abstract

Teacher expectations are related to student academic outcomes, and this can have long-term consequences for students. Teacher expectations can be portrayed by providing differential opportunities to learn whereby some students are assigned low-level tasks, whereas others are given more challenging assignments. Ultimately, students learn in line with the opportunities provided by teachers. Teachers have been shown to be biased against some groups of students, particularly those from ethnic minorities and poor socioeconomic backgrounds. These groups, who are already disadvantaged, tend to be more vulnerable to teacher expectations than other students. It is important that within teacher education programs, teachers understand the detrimental effects of low expectations and increase their understanding of how expectations are portrayed in classrooms. Furthermore, teacher educators at every stage of the profession need to convey how to provide high-level learning opportunities for all students because this is one way that the current inequities in education can be overcome.